D&D General What’s The Big Deal About Psionics?

I just want to see one psionic blast on this thread before the intellect fortress goes up.

I'm sorry, all you're going to find here is Ego Whip and Id Insinuation.

Neonchameleon said:

You have this. You've got the Psi Warrior and Soulknife with psionic energy dice and abilities.

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You mean a psionic system (or just revising prior versions) that is not just a paint of coat on a wizard/sorcerer body? Well, yes, their psychic warrior replacements are instead paint jobs on an eldritch knight.

And the number of people who've run settings for decades is tiny - and the number who I think would accept WotC's rulings now is a fraction of that.

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There are a lot of people on these boards that have long standing campaigns. 40 years? Not so many. Those that ran for 20 years since 3E's psionic system was popular? A lot more.

With all due respect I don't see anything here that makes a good argument:

1. You talk about how you don't want dispel magic to affect your psionics - while using a houseruled homebrew setting. This can be houseruled
2. You talk about the Weave (which I want nowhere near my homebrew settings) and how it's a travesty that Aberrant Minds use the weave - when it's your setting and you can change this. And you do that without mentioning Psi Warriors and Soulknives.
3. "My psionic/psychic warriors are heavily inspired by the Jedi - players wanted it, and I provided it. Psions are your Super Hero and Horror Story figures, with clairsentience, metacreativity, psychokinesis, psychometabolism, psychoportation, telepathy, and metapsionics being the core of their powers." A lot of this feels very soulknify. I think the only one that doesn't exist between the soulknife and psi warrior is the self-referential Metapsionics.

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I believe that you do not know the history of psionics in D&D based upon your statement. Almost all of what I describe, with the partial exception of the jedi references (TSR/WotC drew inspiration there, too), is from the rules throughout the editions. I built my systems on the then current rules and evolved them between editions to add consistency to an erratically changing rule set.

Psionics were originally quite different from magic. This was downgraded to a sidebar option in 3E, but it was a fundamental component of it when psionics first existed. The 2E Psionics Handook specifies this with no hesitation or hedging, for example. They go so far as to call people that think of psionics as magic to be misinformed in a rather snarky paragraph.

Regarding the weave - the relationship between the Weave and Psionics is something discussed within older Forgotten Realms materials. For example, see "Psionics and the weave" in the 3E Player's Guide to Faerun. This 3E version treats psionics as magic, unlike prior editions. Of course, the 2E FR books say that psionics do not exist officially (to begin with at least - they actually have them exist in later products), so there is some back and forth there - more evidence of the inconsistency of the handling of psionics over the editions.

Finally, if I were going to give you examples of all the PCs that have been psionic characters over the past 40 years to show you the breadth of styles and differences, ... well, it would give you an idea on the breadth, but I doubt you'd read the 20 pages of examples. Needless to say, The vast majority of them could not be recreated with with a 5E Psi Warrior, Soulknife, or Aberrant Mind sorcerer. This isn't really something you can debate - it is history from my campaign.

However, if you want one example that you might be able to relate to that you probably know something about: Imagine building Professor X as one of these three choices. Aberrant Mind would be the best fit - but it is a horrible fit, on a scale with telling someone that orders a cake that an apple is a good substitute (they're both solid and sweet, right?).

There is nothing about Xavier that is tied to aberrations, otherworldy creatures, or any of the lore. How would Revelation in Flesh relate to Xavier's powers or story for example? The psionics rules of prior editions gave you the capability to generate much better version of Xavier. There is clear design space to be filled, and it is a gap supported in prior editions that has been overlooked for 6 years.

With all due respect, you can lack an appreciation for a psionic system that is en evolution from prior editions, but you can't say there isn't a good argument for them when so many people have experience and appreciation for psionics over the editions. You may not understand it, but the frequency of how often this is raised and the length of the threads with fervent support for psionics indicate there is a good reason to have it: People want it.

As for Psionics not existing in the Forgotten Realms, that's not true, despite what the Complete Psionics Handbook claims. Elminster had psionic abilities in 1e (see attached file for evidence).

James Gasik said:

As for Psionics not existing in the Forgotten Realms, that's not true, despite what the Complete Psionics Handbook claims. Elminster had psionic abilities in 1e (see attached file for evidence).

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That's... not what the Complete Psionics Handbook said, anyway. It had this to say about psionics in the settings available at the time:

FORGOTTEN REALMS: Prior to the Time of Troubles, psionics were extremely rare in the Realms. The incidence of psionic abilities is now on the rise and the powers themselves seem to have become more stable. Most people have never heard of psionics or psionicists; those who have tend to confuse it with magic.
WORLD OF GREYHAWK: Psionics is an old and established facet of life on Oerth. Presumably it was brought there when an illithid spacecraft crashed on the planet ages ago. Psionicists are by no means common, but most people are at least aware of the existence of psionics and often consider it to be just another mystical pursuit, little different from magic. Psionic guilds and secret associations can be found in major cities.
DRAGONLANCE: No natives of Krynn exhibit any psionic potential whatsoever. What few psionicists live on that world undoubtedly came from somewhere else (via spelljamming vessels or other magical travel) or are the descendants of psionically-able ancestors who came from another world. Only the most widely-read sages and wizards will have any knowledge of psionics.
RAVENLOFT: Psionics is known in Ravenloft. However, the nature of the Demiplane of Dread restricts the effectiveness of some psionic powers: (list of modifications)
SPELLJAMMER: Psionic powers function normally in wildspace and the phlogiston. Psionics is not magic, however, and cannot power a spelljamming helm.

So basically a sliding scale of commonish (Greyhawk) to virtually unknown (Dragonlance), with FR in between. At the time Birthright, Planescape, and Dark Sun had not been released, and Mystara was still the BECMI setting and not AD&D.

Ironically there was a Half-Kender in the Cloakmaster Cycle who was a Psion. Buuuuuuut....while there was nothing wrong with that character, old school gamers don't tend to like to discuss Kender, Half-Kender, or The Cloakmaster Cycle anyways. : )

James Gasik said:

Ironically there was a Half-Kender in the Cloakmaster Cycle who was a Psion. Buuuuuuut....while there was nothing wrong with that character, old school gamers don't tend to like to discuss Kender, Half-Kender, or The Cloakmaster Cycle anyways. : )

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I actually was rather fond of the Cloakmaster Cycle. I'd read it again if I could find a copy.

I was disappointed in the ending, how it rushed through the contents of The Legend of the Spelljammer boxed set very quickly- I like my novels being tie-ins, not actually making content obsolete. Especially since the main character was never seen or heard from again.

James Gasik said:

I was disappointed in the ending, how it rushed through the contents of The Legend of the Spelljammer boxed set very quickly- I like my novels being tie-ins, not actually making content obsolete. Especially since the main character was never seen or heard from again.

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I agree with that, but the lead up was pretty cool. I liked the giff, and the good mind flayer.

Ah, the Giff. What a stupidly FUN race. Super strong and tough Hippo Men who have a culture based on Victorian-era British Military, and love ANYTHING that goes "kaboom" in the night!